Comic book geeks of Metro Phoenix better get plenty of sleep on Friday night, not to mention waiting until Sunday to check out Iron Man 3. That's because Saturday, May 4, gonna be a red-letter day that's like a ink-stained, pulp-filled, four-color mashup of Phoenix Comicon, Halloween, and Christmastime. The annual celebration of Free Comic Book Day will be happening at retail shops both locally and nationwide.

And thanks to a bit of calendar synchronicity, Intergalactic Star Wars Day (a.k.a. "May the Fourth Be With You") also falls on Saturday. The upshot of which for fans of the saga is that many local nerd-related businesses will feting both occasions. We've scoured pretty much every collectors den, comic shop, and geek havens in town and have a comprehensive list of what you can expect this weekend. Consider it a rehearsal for Comicon.

Blurring the lines between fine art, poetry and naughty comics, the Tempe Zine Con featured nearly 20 entries from local artists and writers.

Down at the Bayou, a house in the "Hipster Compton" section of Tempe just west of the ASU campus, a small crowd of fashionable, attractive young artists gathered in the brick shed to share their zines, drink some beer and take turns listening and reading their work.

Welcome back to Explicitly Graphic, a monthly column by Cynthia Clark Harvey (who's working on a graphic novel of her own). From time to time, Harvey will review graphic novels, talk to artists, and dive into the scene of all things explicitly graphic. Today, she talks about Lynda Barry's university cartooning class with an online syllabus.

Editor's note: Amazing Arizona Comic Con has announced that because of an illness, Stan Lee will not be appearing.

Remember when comic books cost a dime and you would rush the newsstand every Friday after school for some weekend reading? Batman, Superman and Spider-Man were the big ones, but there were also Tales from the Dark Side, G.I. Joe and probably something about zombies.

Well, those days are gone. The reality is that comic books have become big business, practically overshadowing the larger-than-life characters filling the pulpy pages.

The third annual Amazing Arizona Comic Con returns to Phoenix January 25-27 featuring two of the men most responsible for elevating comic books in the literary world: Marvel Comics founder and creator Stan Lee, and DC Comics mastermind Jim Lee (no relation).

"Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you're the Charlie Browniest."

It's easy to get bummed out by Christmas -- especially when the "holiday season," with all the crass consumerism, bad music, and awkward family gatherings -- seems to kick off earlier and earlier each year.

But only the "grinchiest" can resist the charms of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Originally aired by CBS in 1965 (ABC now airs the special), the film established Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts" characters as synonymous with Christmas, capturing all the joy and lowdown of the holiday with its crude animation, mellow jazz soundtrack (courtesy of Vince Guaraldi), and decidedly traditional message.

San Diego Comic-Con is over and the latest adventures of Batman have yet to hit the silver screen. So while you're in comic land limbo, we have a few local solutions to get an illustrated fix.

7. Greg's Comics
This is the comic book geek's comic book shop. The Mesa store's laid out like a dork hoarder's garage sale -- packed with rows and rows of long boxes, with very little wiggle room. But there's a bounty of back issues in those boxes, at fairly cheap prices, and best of all, mini-series are bundled together and sold at a discount.

Those late afternoon kids' TV specials of the 80s and 90s about Really Important Stuff left their mark on comics artist Dave Kiersh. So much so, that his new book, Kiersh's first full-length graphic novella, is titled Afterschool Special.

Growing up on Long Island, Kiersh found the topic-driven shows on subjects such as safe sex, abstinence and date rape - common denominator: sex? -- pretty darn riveting.

One that he recalls in great detail is the 1988 CBS Schoolbreak Special "No Means No." It's a story about date rape told in voice-over narration by the main characters, one played by Chad Lowe.